Unanswered Prayers

I grew up in the 80s.
Music was my world.
Rock. Pop. Gospel. Country.
I went through every phase a teenager could have.

In the late 80s and early 90s, I went through a country phase.
That was when Garth Brooks released the song, ‘Unanswered Prayers’.
I recall how it impacted me.

The thought that the very thing I was asking God to arrange
might someday become the thing I thanked Him for not arranging.

Back then, it felt like a great lyric.
Now it feels almost prophetic.

Because when I look back, I can see a pattern in my life.
I see the moments I was certain I knew what I needed.
I see the doors I wanted so badly to open.
The relationships I was sure would shape my future.
The paths I prayed for with everything in me.
And I see how God gently turned me another way.

Not to punish me.
Not to hold something good back.
But to guard me from what I could not yet see.

I am older now.
A little wiser.
And I can spot God’s fingerprints on every unanswered prayer.
Every closed door.
Every silence that felt like distance but turned out to be protection.

Gratitude becomes deeper when you look backward.
When you realize you were carried.
When you understand that some of the greatest gifts in your life
were the things that never happened.
Some of His best blessings come in the form of inaction.

And one day, we will look back with a grateful heart with one simple prayer:

Thank You for knowing me better than I knew myself.

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